by Mike Blakely
The crazy wind returned and wrenched Horseback away, causing pain to crawl around under his skin from head to toe. The pain made him groan, and he remembered that he was still being punished for the bad thing he had done. He sped above the clouds again, heading south. The great mountains passed to his right, and below he could see herds of buffalo dotting the fine grassy plains. Among the buffalo moved elk, antelope, wolves, coyotes, and deer. Horseback sang the Song of the Sun in homage to the deer he saw below, for he knew he must revere his spirit-guide animal now more than ever before.
Passing over grass-covered plains that went on and on, he recognized the earthen village of Tachichichi where his friend Speaks Twice lived, and where Bear Heart lay wounded. Now he began to see camps of Na-vohnuh, recognizable by the red-and-white lodges. His hatred flared again, and he wished he had the strength at this moment to attack these ancient enemies of the True Humans, but he was weak and was barely able to ride on the crazy wind. He looked a long way across the great plains, and saw that the Na-vohnuh held all of the good grass, and the best hunting grounds Horseback could ever have imagined.
Suddenly, he saw something strange appear below. It looked like a herd of buffalo, but it faded, then vanished, then appeared again, as if viewed through a mist. Something circled this herd of buffalo, and when Horseback looked closer, he could see spirit-warriors who wore the feathers and blue leggings of the True Humans. He watched them with fascination as they rode horses that were finer than any he had ever known. They swarmed around the misty buffalo and killed many, many of them. Now Horseback saw more misty warriors joining the hunt, and they carried scalps on their belts and feathers in their hair. They were coming from the north. Many, many warriors, all misty and hard to watch. They kept coming and coming, and they made camps that wavered like the spirit visions that appeared in the bad lands under the hot summer sun. And for each warrior there were twenty misty horses. Horseback wondered why they were not real. He wondered why they looked like dream-people. It was strange.
As he watched the nation of mist people, a roar like that of a huge prairie fire came from above, the flames making the flesh of his back crackle like fat thrown into the fire. Horseback’s mouth opened to scream, but no noise came out. He tumbled in flight, and when he stopped, he saw the angry red eyes of Sound-the-Sun-Makes, the Great Deer, boring his soul with rays of pure power.
“You have been careless!” the spirit said, his voice coming out like a roar. He shook his head in anger, making flames lash about his neck like the mane of a spirit-pony.
“Yes,” Horseback said. “I must atone.”
“It is not I who punishes you. It is the shadow of evil made dark by my bright flame. You have suffered enough. Give back the power I gave to you in your vision quest, and you will suffer no more.”
“Give back my puha?” Horseback asked.
“And you will suffer no more.”
“I want to keep my medicine.”
“You do not deserve to keep it. You have been careless with it. This time, you alone suffer. Next time, your whole nation may suffer.”
“I have learned, Sound-the-Sun-Makes. I will not be careless again.”
“Give back your power, and you will return to your own country. You will live long and have sons. You will survive the winters and eat things of the earth. You will escape your enemies.”
“And if I choose to keep my power?”
“You will flirt with the shadow again.”
“What will happen?”
“You have seen the nation of Horse People in the mist of seasons to come. This is your nation, Horseback, if you honor your spirit-guide. All the greatness and all the blessings of the Shadow Land will go with you. If you honor your protector.”
Horseback felt the lure of greatness swell in his heart. “I will honor my spirit-guide, Sound-the-Sun-Makes. I will serve the new Horse nation. I know now what happens to those who are careless with power.”
Sound-the-Sun-Makes laughed, a great ball of fire roaring from his mouth and engulfing Horseback’s battered body. “You know nothing! You have experienced a morsel of retribution, like a drop that falls into a great river of suffering. You have not heard the screams of dying babies or seen the rotten souls of strangled warriors. Medicine like the fires of the sun goes toward the making of a great nation from a poor one. The fires of the sun make a very dark shadow. Such a shadow possesses as much power as the sun that makes it. Will you flirt with the shadow, Horseback?”
“I will honor you, Sound-the-Sun-Makes. I will beware of the shadow. I will not grow careless again in my duties to you.”
Sound-the-Sun-Makes ramped and pawed the sky, he shook his great head and flung his weapons far away, beyond the ends of the earth. He shifted to the shape of a horse and ran back toward Father Sun, leaping into the great fire. From this fire, Horseback heard the voice:
“So be it.”
Suddenly, he felt very tired of flying, and Father Sun was passing beyond the unknown land in the west. Horseback shivered with chills, and felt his muscles burning with fatigue. The nation of misty True Humans vanished, and he passed over the mountains, over Santa Fe. In the twilight he saw the Metal Men’s road that went south. The long string of carts stood on that road not far south of Santa Fe, and many cook fires lit the camp of the traders. Horseback began to groan, because he did not want to go back to the camp of the Metal Men. It had been good to fly, to feel safe in the air. But now the cold winds from the wings of the Thunderbird were pushing him down to the camp of the Metal Men. He saw soldiers, and traders, and slaves, and slaves-who-were-not-slaves, and women, and horses, and mules, and cattle, and sheep. He saw one of the Black Robes moving through the camp like an evil shadow. He smelled food cooking, and felt his stomach cramp violently.
All the good air fell out from under him and he dropped from high above. He tried to scream, but his voice would not come. He landed hard on one of the carts, and felt all the breath knocked out of his lungs. He was hurting badly, and he shivered uncontrollably. His mouth was dry. His head throbbed with pain. He lay on a bundle of hides in the cart, and he could hear the Metal Men talking all around him. Horseback felt very bad. He closed his eyes, and everything went dark.
40
Horseback felt himself being dragged from the oxcart. Scabs ripped open on his back, while his sore muscles and joints stabbed him with pain. He groaned. A hand pressed over his mouth, and a whisper penetrated the fever that confused his thoughts. The words came in the Noomah tongue:
“Keep quiet, elder sister.”
He felt the agony of being pulled onto someone’s back, and he was lifted, carried away. He heard the snores of Metal Men. He made his eyes open, and in the sparse light of a half-moon, he saw a dead ox driver lying with his throat cut, a black pool of blood glistening beautifully in the moonlight. Silently, he was moved away from the camp of the white traders, sensing that he rode upon his father’s back while Whip and Echo guarded the retreat. He sighed with relief, and his heart felt good, though the rest of him felt very bad.
Waking again, he smelled horses, and felt the warm sweaty coat of a pony slide under him. He let his arms and legs dangle across either side of the mount, and clinched some mane between his teeth to keep himself from sliding off as the pony began to move.
The next time he awoke, he found himself in a new camp, hidden among pine trees. He tasted broth and swallowed, his stomach instantly convulsing. His head no longer ached, but his back still felt sore.
He heard his father’s voice. “Drink, my son. Your sweats have passed. You need food. Paniagua brought medicine for your back, and you are better. You must eat.”
Horseback found himself lying on his side, his father holding his head up so he could drink the broth. He took another swallow.
“Shaggy Hump,” someone said, “shall I make a cradle board for your son?” The disgust in the voice was plain.
Taking another drink of the broth, Horseback opened his eyes and, to his sur
prise, saw Bear Heart sitting with Whip and Echo. All three of them slumped dejectedly, ashamed to be camping with one as weak as himself. It was Bear Heart’s voice that had suggested the making of the cradle board.
He tried his voice, and it croaked, but he summoned his strength, and spoke: “Bear Heart, the last time I saw you, our enemies had made your guts spill out.”
Bear Heart’s temper flared, and he slapped himself in the stomach to prove he had healed. “You will not find the scars of a slave on my back, elder sister.”
Horseback growled. “You will see my slave scars as I rush before you to steal your strokes counted in battle.”
Shaggy Hump chuckled. “My son is coming back.”
Horseback drank more of the broth, then asked, “My father, how many ponies have you taken from the Na-vohnuh?”
Shaggy Hump held the ladle of stew to Horseback’s lips. “We took seven ponies, but it was no great feat. There was a bad spirit in that Na-vohnuh camp, my son, and we were afraid to enter it. All of our enemies were moaning and dying from the Metal Men’s sickness. Paniagua tells us this white sickness has killed many people. It is good that we stayed away from it.”
Horseback propped himself up on one elbow and took the buffalo horn ladle from his father. Drinking from it, he found a tender piece of meat to chew. “Listen, my father. I have had a great vision. I must get stronger, soon. I have seen things both wonderful and terrible.”
He drank a second ladle full of the stew. Then, a third. But even this made him tired, and he soon lay back down. Before he went to sleep, he glanced at Whip, Echo, and Bear Heart, and found them sitting taller now.
* * *
When Horseback woke again, he was starving. He ate greedily, forcing himself to stand as he ate, though Whip and Shaggy Hump had to hold him up to keep him from falling over. After eating, he walked, leaning on the trees around the camp to steady himself. He went to see the horses, grazing in a nearby meadow. He had Bear Heart and Echo help him onto one of the horses, and he rode slowly around the meadow, making a sacred circle, feeling his power come back. While he was riding, he watched carefully for deer tracks, deer dung, and most especially, deer antlers.
The medicine Paniagua had given him was good. It came from a plant Horseback did not know. The plant, wherever it came from, possessed strong puha. There was some of the medicine left over, so he wrapped it carefully in rabbit fur and put it in a safe place in one of his parfleche bags.
For two days, Horseback ate, walked, rode, slept, and thought about his vision. The third day he looked at his weapons. The foolish Metal Men had been too busy torturing him to think about destroying them. His father had found them along with his medicine bundle, and had taken care of them. His shield and his pogamoggan were sound. His lance was sharp, his arrows straight, his bowstring strong. He purified himself and his weapons with cedar smoke, then called his warriors to the sacred fire.
“I want to tell you about my great vision,” Horseback began. “In my vision, I flew like a hawk. I saw things that made me laugh, things that made my heart bad, and things that made me want to punish my enemies. I heard my mother weep. I cannot yet say all the things I saw in this great vision, but I know a way that I can prove to you that the vision was real.”
“How, my son?” said Shaggy Hump as he stuffed the bowl of his elk-antler pipe with tobacco.
“Soon, we must return to the country of the True Humans. When we arrive at the camp of the Burnt Meat People, my Naming Father, Spirit Talker, will be dead. If this is so, then you will know that I have seen his death and other things in my great vision.”
Echo laughed. “Spirit Talker has been one sleep from the Shadow Land since I was hunting rabbits with a stick.”
The men laughed. Horseback thought about this, and smiled. The smile melted from his face when he thought about what he must say next. “When we return, young Red Pipe will be dead, also. If it is so, will you believe in my great vision?”
The warriors looked at each other worriedly, and glanced suspiciously at Horseback, as one would regard a sorcerer.
“If it is so, I will believe in your vision,” Echo said. “If it is not so, your medicine has gone bad, and no one will ever believe you again.”
Horseback nodded solemnly. “In my vision, my spirit-guide—the Great Deer called Sound-the-Sun-Makes—warned me. My medicine will be strong, but it will be dangerous. Those who follow me will tread upon the trail of evil things and risk their souls for the good of all True Humans.”
“Why would any warrior flirt with such dangerous medicine?” Bear Heart asked.
“Because,” Horseback answered, “the glory for those who survive will be greater than any ever known by a Noomah warrior. A new nation will rise. There will be fresh meat, even on the coldest day of winter. We will raise lodges taller than any ever seen, for every warrior will have enough ponies to drag many poles and hides. We will conquer much country, with good water, grass, tall trees for lodge poles, and much fruit for our women to make into sweet things. We will have so many horses that we will need much country with much grass, and we will have it. The buffalo and elk and many other good things to eat will number like all the stars of all the night skies since the days of our grandfathers’ grandfathers. Our lodges will fill with children. We will own more horses than any nation of people ever to walk upon the earth.”
The men sat silently, wondering why Horseback would make such crazy talk.
“Fresh meat on the coldest day?” Whip said.
Horseback nodded. “My vision is great, but dangerous.”
“How must a warrior ride to follow the path of your vision, my son?”
“I will tell you. The vision begins here, with the smoke of this sacred fire. From here, I will ride to the party of traders the Metal Men send south. They move slowly. I will catch them within one sleep. I will attack these men who held me captive and tortured me. I will take the scalp of anyone who tries to stop me. I will use my pogamoggan to count strokes on anyone who comes within reach. I will take every horse and every mule in the party of traders, and they will be mine. I will scream my war cry so loud that it will echo in the nightmares of the Metal Men who tortured me.”
“I like the sound of this talk,” Echo-of-the-Wolf said.
“There is more. I will take my horses and scalps northward, toward the land of the Noomah. On the way I will raid the ranchos of the Metal Men. I will take every horse I see, except for the horses of Raccoon-Eyes. I will go around his rancho. Raccoon-Eyes warned me about the Black Robe and the soldiers, but I was too foolish to listen. I will protect his lodge as I would my own. Raccoon-Eyes is not one of the Metal Men. He comes from another nation.”
“And then will you go home?” Whip said. “Back to the country of the True Humans?”
“Yes. I will go northward with many horses through the country of the Yuta.”
“Through the country of our enemies?”
“Bad Camper will help us get through to our own country. I will give him many mules, but keep all the horses. When we reach our own country, we will find the camp of the Corn People. I will trade ten horses to Teal’s father, and she will be mine.”
Whip smiled. “And then we will go home to the Burnt Meat People. They will sing with joy when we arrive with all our things.”
“No,” Horseback said. “This is not according to my vision. Those who ride with me and use the protection of my spirit-medicine will ride to the country of the Northern Raiders. There we will count many strokes in battle, take scalps, and steal many horses. We must not let the Northern Raiders have horses. The horses are a gift to the True Humans from the Great Creator. Our enemies will raise their horses for us to take. Horses are power. Power makes the Noomah strong. Anyone who chooses to ride with Horseback will attack the Northern Raiders before going home to the Burnt Meat People.”
“Why, my son? Why must we raid our enemies before we go home to our women? Why not rest one moon, then attack the Northern Raiders?�
��
“Because this is not what my vision tells me I must do. You will know why, my father, if you make the raid with me. You will be angry, and you will fight like the great bear that scarred you that time near the camp of Two Rivers.”
Silence fell over the mountain camp of the Noomah searchers. A wisp of sacred cedar smoke carried the council talk up to the spirits.
“When I was wounded at Tachichichi,” Bear Heart said, “and lying around like a woman, I had a vision of my own. My spirit-guide spoke to me in this vision. He said I must join Horseback again in the country of the Metal Men. My spirit-guide told me I must do this, or else give back my puha and live among the Tiwa at Tachichichi the rest of my days. I am a proud Noomah warrior. I will not live among the Tiwa. I want to keep my medicine. I am not afraid to die, for I have seen the trail up to the Shadow Land in my sleep at Tachichichi, and I know it will be a good place for a brave warrior to go. I believe in Horseback’s vision.”
Horseback took the elk-antler pipe from his father. He pulled a flaming pine stick from the fire and touched it to the tobacco his father had packed into the bowl. He drew deep and felt the sweet, powerful smoke purify his lungs. Bear Heart sat on his left side. Horseback passed the pipe to Bear Heart.
This was the way of the elders. He who chose to ride with Horseback would smoke the sacred tobacco. He who doubted Horseback’s medicine would pass the pipe on without smoking. No man would speak against the warrior who did not smoke, for no man could know another’s puha.
Bear Heart smoked, and passed the pipe to Whip. Whip smoked and passed the pipe to Echo. Echo smoked and passed the pipe to Shaggy Hump. Shaggy Hump smoked and returned the pipe to Horseback. Horseback smoked again, exhaled, patted the smoke from his mouth onto his chest and shoulders.